“China is operating the Panama canal and we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”

Donald Trump’s claim in his inauguration speech that Panama had “broken its promises” to the US was alarming for many Panamanians. Washington relinquished control of the canal in 1977, so why is Trump pressing the issue now?

“For many Panamanians, this is a settled understanding that they administrate the canal, that they’ve been running it for decades,” the Guardian’s global affairs correspondent, Andrew Roth, tells Hannah Moore.

“For Donald Trump to come out and make basically two claims – first of all, that the canal is mismanaged, and second of all, that China is running the canal - it’s almost like an insult to the national pride of many Panamanians.”

Andrew explains the political resonance of the issue for older voters in the US, where the claims about Chinese influence have come from, and why an old grudge involving one of Trump’s hotels might also be part of his motivation.

Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/todayinfocuspod